SonnyLuong

Or you may use that photo as an image prop, draw a polygon overlaying that image, then put the texture you want on that polygon; doing these, everything should show up in rendering. But if the design is in preliminary stage, I'll just do it Photoshop or Illustrator.

The big question is, how long does it take to from the time you uploaded the file to the time you actually get the images back? How much faster compare to rendering them on our machine? Peace, Sonny

I have discovered that VW2014 is very unstable on Win8.1 Pro. Drawings and models created in older versions of VW failed to display properly. Attribute Pallet failed to function properly when I try to assign a color to objects. Objects Information Pallet is acting up quite frequent -- it said no object selected when I have selected an object, or it'll display the wrong information e.g. line for polygon. Yes, it seems to crash more often. Anyone noticed these symptoms?

I agree w/ tech.support. your equipments seem adequate, however, I am not sure abt. Window os. I run VW on both os's and the Mac seems to operate much more smoothly. I recently experiment and found that my Window machine can't even show the graphics drew on older versions VW.

I think you've made a smart choice. I was an old-school architect--did everything by hand. When I went to Graduate School, the projects have gotten so large that completing them with the time given in school were impossible, so I started to look for an alternative. I started out with AutoCAD and SketchUp, and learned VW on my own. I also took 3DS Max, Revit, and PS formally in school . . . That was three years ago. I now only use VW and PS for everything I do. Many Revit users in school often came around and asked me what I used to do certain things that look so cool! VW is the most intuitive application I know so far, and it runs on Mac. I don't know why I learned Max and Revit in the first place--I never used them! It won't be long before you'll become a proud VW user. If I can own just one design application at this time, VW will be it. Hang in there. GS tutorials and YouTube videos did it for me, and of course, this Community Board also, so take the time to explore these venues.

Thanks for your recommendation along with the web link. That's what made the VW Community Board the best in the world. I looked at the mouse you are using . . . and it is a little far out for me; especially, since I have a small hand. I just want something "comfy", precise, and ergonomics, and light that I can hold on to 24/7 while working with VW. Back to shopping . . . SL

I switched from the Logitech Wired G500 to the Logitech Darkfield Performance MX mouse and had one heck of a time to adjust to it! The G500 is so precise in everything even without the fine tune software for my Macbook Pro; the Performance MX is so sensitive in VW environment even with all the fine tune features of the software written specifically for the Mac platform. Particularly the scroll wheel (I am always zooming with the wheel), it is so sensitive! It's either too much or too little when I zoom, but never the right amount. Don't you have the same problem? I really want to go wireless though. SL

Have you unified the views? try it on the top/plan view and choose a paste in place option. SL

It is available. I've downloaded mine and put it in action. Get it and enjoy, SL

Hey Guys, I need help to choose the best and most precise wireless mice to use with VW. I have went through several and still cannot find my true happiness! The best I have used so far is the Logitech G500, but it's not wireless; the Logitech Performance MX is way too sensitive and not precise enough (especially the scroll wheel . . .) Any suggestion? Thanks a bunch for a good recommendation.

OMG! Trust me my friend, the things you are avoiding are the things can serve you tremendously... I don't see how any one can use VW and not reaping all the benefits the application has to offer. In the same token, I don't see how I can live w/o classes feature... VW Designer package is the only way to go. You want to get to the ultimate level one day, don't you?

Well, Peter show me how to do a section details one time. I took the process and explored further... I found the best way is to edit annotation of that particular viewport. Once you inside the edit mode, you can set up a new class or layer with whatever scale you want and work the details right on top of that view port. You can later decide whether or not to show those details at any given time through class and layer option. Wouldn't it be easier that way?

I agreed with that. Check how your Story levels are set up. It's a new concept in VW that can really throw you off, but you can change the height of these levels via organization dialog box on the design layers tab like Tom has said.

Well, it is slow... It has to be slow. In the truest sense, we architects are power and memory abusers. The technology today is really not up to par for what we are doing as designers. What it is, is every pixel and every color illumination and angle has to be calculate and assign a value (I used to be in engineering). For example, if you have 300dpi and 24 x 36 size image - you'll have 77,760,000 pixels to assign value to, but it goes in 3-dimensions when rendering, so every dot has different illuminations to give our image an illusion of depth. But I will expect that the toughest machine in the business with everything maxed out can handle the job more adequately. It's not! Get back to your question. Yes, You can render every room. Just make sure you only render what in view, which means, do not let a full wall with textures somewhere in the design demands the rendering. When you don't see it, turn it off. Give it a unique class i.e. non-render-wall and turn it off. A better way is to render with the bitmap tool, so only what in view and what you have cropped will render. The culprit of it is, I like to manipulate my images in Photoshop, so I never print out from VW. So for me, it is like double rendering because every darn time an image is exported, it re-renders! Wholly ****! That's why the thought of cloud rendering comes in. 40 Megapixels image with 4 GB file size renders in 10 minutes is a miracle! You get the images back, go to Shop to embellish them, and bam! U r done. Time is money, right?

I'll find out.

Try a fresh symbol from VW's library and edit it to the way you like later in OIP. Those self made symbols or hybrid windows from the window tool tend to be rejected!

Thanks for the inputs, I find it very helpful. As modern architects of the New World, it's hard not to have complex forms in our design. Yes, I do take away all things I do not want to show on the render. Here is what I've heard. You can register with Autodesk when using Revit, and render a 40 megapixel image with up to a 4 gig. file in the cloud for 10 minutes. Can you imagine that? 10 minutes, You know how much more productive we can be?

Well, can you make the header the sub-object mode of the door and assign it to a different class like rough-opening or something in that nature, and then have that particular class turned off?

This could be a one of a kind and the most beneficial request for Vectorworks Community to Nemetscheck. Is anyone out there have fun with rendering... "A LARGE" file? I am not! Is there a way that anyone know of to render off the Vectorworks program faster? I was told that Revit files can be rendered through the "cloud" extremely fast! If this is the case, and if we have no alternative for it; I might have to switch back to Revit. The new Vectorworks 2013 has non-blocking rendering where you can actually doing something else with the application while it is rendering, however, it make the application and the machine extremely weak. Last night, I have spent a whole night with the best MacBook Pro on the market to render two images. It is terrible! What if we have a dozen of images to render and they are needed over night? Anyone out there can help?

Thanks for the involvement Tamsin! good to c u in pic... The VW international celebrity. I'll be ordering your book soon.

Have U got the answers for these questions, yet? Just incase U haven't; You need to save your textures that you have created in the User Library. The reason being is you won't have to browse through hundreds of the textures in the application library every time you need it. Chances are, You'll re-use a few of your favorite textures from time to time. You should also copy a few of the textures came in VW library, alter them to you liking, give it a new name if needed, and save them as your owns in the user library. It'll save you time in the future...Hope it helps

Very true, I agreed with your opinion. It was the very first of my concerns when I decided to make a switch to VW. Not enough manuals alike the "Master" & "Bible" series! As an architect, I am quite a reader... I have to read and apprehend everything first before I can get going on it. I think that's the one advantage application like Max, Sketchup, Acad, Revit, and the likes has over VW. The more good books they have, the more users they have.

Thank You so much, my friend. It is so great to have responsive member like yourself on board who doesn't mind to share a few words of wisdom... Thank you! If you are glad to own them, I am sure I'll be too.

Amen to that... Started out in AutoCad, current Vectorworkers!

Has anyone bought any of the training manuals selling on Vectorworks website? Can you please give me your honest opinion about any of them? I am interested in all of them, however, the price is kind of stiff! I don't mind if they are good and worth it, but I am afraid otherwise... If they are suck.